Five Things – 6.29.15 – Thrill To The Awe And Mystery Of The Hidden World

1. Secret Video Game Tricks, Codes, & Strategies, Volume 1 – Whew! That’s a mouthful! This video is one of dozens of “How to Beat Videogames” tutorials from the 1980s, most of which focus on exploiting glitches and bugs to gain advantages in difficult parts of games.

This one’s no different, except that it features exclusive tips from the US Video Game Team (a real thing!)

The video takes you through glitches and scoring tips for some of the big names like Gradius, Contra, Adventure Island and Castlevania II as well as some of the more obscure ones like Ring King and Iron Tank. While usually you just get a bunch of gameplay video in these things, this title sets itself apart with wacky 80’s graphic transitions and what appears to be a studio setting in which the team members execute these amazing tricks using NES Advantages.

That second picture looks like something from the Spaceship of the Mind in Cosmos.

2. Max Rebo Band Toy Commercial – I think the play-acting in this commercial lasts longer than the actual screen time that the Max Rebo Band got in Return of the Jedi.

3. The Goonies Board Game – Did you know The Goonies had a board game? Me either. Are you surprised? Me either.

For a board game based on a kid’s movie, there’s an impressive amount of complexity to it. The player’s movement is determined by a card draw, and there are several “Encounter Areas” that reflect the main plot points of the movie.

Each of these Encounter Areas has its own set if cards and conditions for success. There’s also a set of Fratelli cards that can be used to set your opponents back on the board, as well as a “Data Saves The Day” card that can nullify any Fratelli card.

The final area is the lagoon, where One Eyed Willy’s Pirate Ship resides. Your job is to obtain a treasure crystal and successfully exit, and then you’ve won! This game could have been a Candy-Land knockoff and probably made just as much money, so it’s impressive to see the attention paid to making this an actually interesting game. Plus the use of the artwork commissioned for the movie is just amazing. Here are the character cards with their special abilities: